José Rivas Fontán

José Rivas Fontán (born 31 August 1941) is a Spanish politician and teacher who was the Mayor of Pontevedra between 1979 and 1991.

Rivas Fontán grew up in a parish near the town of Pontevedra, where he attended a state primary school, starting at age six.

Pérez became his boss and friend and, years later, would turn out to be an essential collaborator in the Pontevedra Teachers Movement (MMS).

This democratic organisation clashed with the political regime (Francisco Franco's dictatorship), and after many difficulties and risks, culminated in the “1st EGB Congress of Pontevedra” in 1977.

He was Secretary of the Galician Parliamentary Assembly which comprised all elected MPs as well as the senators chosen by the Crown, the Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela and Domingo García Sabell.

Due to a prolonged persecution by the Head Judge of Number 3 Court in Pontevedra (Luciano Varela), Rivas Fontán left politics, and did not run again in 1991.

In 1996 and 2000, he was re-elected as an MP in the 6th [11] and 7th [12] legislatures, acting as a member of Commissions for Education, Public Administration, Infrastructure and Defence.

As a member of the latter, he was in the Security Commission of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, attending meetings held in various countries around the world (USA, Germany, Russia, Norway, Slovakia, Macedonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, etc.